Chapter 7 From Page to Screen 249CHAPTER IN FOCUS
In this chapter you will:
- create an original short narrative screenplay in standard format
- investigate traditions and methods of storytelling through motion
pictures - evaluate narrative structure and character development in a variety of
movies
Storyteller
Where do our stories come from? Do you tell someone about your actions
and experiences? Do you make things up? Do you type out stories to store
on a laptop? Do you write in a journal? Do you only read or hear or see
stories but never think of recounting a narrative yourself? Do you ever think
of a story in which the fi rst ideas that come to your head are a sequence of
images? Or do you pick up a camera and start shooting movies, making up
a story as you go?
Many fi lmmakers in Hollywood like to describe themselves as “storytellers”
who happen to work in the visual and aural medium of motion pictures. As
discussed earlier, these storytellers nearly always work from a plan. In this
chapter, you will complete essential steps in the development of screenplays
and other forms of preparation for motion picture production, and you will
hone skills in the analysis of screenplays and movie narratives.
Screenwriters work in a variety of ways and use countless sources of
motivation for the development of ideas, characters, and thematic material.
Th e essential diffi culties of the task of the screenwriter have been shared by
storytellers and artists throughout the history of human creative expression.
Here is a description of the working process of Billy Wilder, a writer-director-
producer who was presented in Chapter 5. He is talking about collaborating
with his writing partner I. A. L. Diamond:
We meet at, say, 9:30 in the morning and open shop, like bank tellers,
and we sit there in one room. We read Hollywood Reporter and
Variety, exchange the trades, and then we just stare at each other.
Sometimes nothing happens. Sometimes it goes on until 12:30...
and we go to lunch. Or sometimes we come full of ideas. Th is is not
the muse coming through the windows and kissing our brows. It’s
very hard work, and having done both, I tell you that directing is a
pleasure and writing is a drag. Directing can become diffi cult, but
it is a pleasure because you have something to work with. You can
put the camera here or there; you can interpret the scene this way or
that way; the readings can be such and such. But writing is just an
empty page. You start with nothing, absolutely nothing, and I think
writers are vastly underrated...Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).